Rose to be named NBA's MVP

Bulls guard youngest player to win award

Derrick Rose drives to the basket on the Hawks' Al Horford during the first half of Game 1. (Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune)

On the eve of training camp, Derrick Rose famously and rhetorically asked why he couldn't be the NBA's most valuable player.

Rose, according to multiple sources familiar with the announcement, will get this answer on Tuesday: He can.

Rose, sources said, will receive the award during a Tuesday afternoon news conference at a local hotel. Commissioner David Stern will present it to him again before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Hawks on Wednesday at the United Center.

At 22 years, 7 months, Rose will become the youngest MVP in NBA history, supplanting 1969 winner and Hall of Famer Wes Unseld by roughly five months. And he will do so by taking a huge jump, becoming the first MVP winner since Dave Cowens in 1973 to win the award without receiving one vote the previous year.

That's why so many reacted with surprise and skepticism when Rose made his pre-training camp claim. Sure, people expected big things from Rose, who had been an All-Star reserve in his second season.

But Rose, who tweaked his sprained left ankle at the end of Monday night's 103-95 loss to the Hawks, took a huge jump both statistically and with intangibles, becoming one of the league's premier closers and carrying the Bulls through major injuries to Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah.

"The talent part is obvious," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "Everyone can see that. But unless you're around him every day, you don't see his drive and humility and the way he is with his teammates, the example he sets. He's never satisfied. He always wants to do better. He always puts the team first. And he'll always do what you ask him to do."

With averages of 25 points, 7.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds, Rose became the seventh player in NBA history to post averages of at least 25 points, 7.5 assists and four rebounds in a single season. He joined heavyweights Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

Rose also became the fifth player — and first point guard — to post 2,000 points, 600 assists and 300 rebounds in the same season, again joining elite company in Robertson, Jordan, James and John Havlicek.

Rose also joined Jordan as the only Bulls to finish in the top 10 in scoring and assists in the same season, which Jordan achieved in 1988-89.

And he will join Jordan, who won the award five times, as the only MVPs in franchise history. Jordan endorsed Rose for the award in early March.

"I like proving people wrong," Rose told the Tribune earlier this season. "And that's why I said what I said (about MVP).

"I always look at myself as an underdog. People always ask why I wear No. 1. It took me a long time to get where I am right now. I think back to high school. O.J. (Mayo) was No. 1 in our class. I wanted to get there."

Rose, the first third-year player to win the award since Moses Malone in 1978-79, is there now. He has ascended to the top of the NBA mountaintop, a local product from Simeon High made good.

Rose, for the most part, has reverted to his aw-shucks routine when asked about the award since asking his pre-training camp question. But he grew reflective over the weekend when asked what he would do with the award, saying he would give it to his mother, Brenda.

She also has Rose's Rookie of the Year award, won after the Bulls selected him with the first overall pick before the 2008-09 season.

"If anything, she'll probably steal it from me if I do get it," Rose said. "That would be a great (Mother's Day) gift if I could give it to her."